From dumping anti-communist leaflets from a plane above Vietnam to a monthlong hunger strike over the name of a San Jose business district, Vietnamese “freedom fighter” Ly Tong’s protests have been deliberately nonviolent.

Same with his latest exploit, he insisted Monday as he took the stand to defend himself against assault charges in a trial being closely watched by Vietnamese communities from Orange County to Australia.

Offering his version of events for the first time since he was charged with assault, Tong insisted he didn’t disrupt a concert nearly two years ago by dressing in drag and attacking a singer from Vietnam with pepper spray.

Tong said he planned to jump up onto the stage at the Santa Clara Convention Center on July 18, 2010, pull up his skirt and flash signs pinned to his pink underwear that read, “Down with Ho Chi Minh” and “Down with communism.”

“It is humiliation to them (communists) to put it in underwear,” he said, “Fish sauce is a kind of humiliation.”

Tong claimed the only reason he tucked a canister of pepper spray in his bra and another in his panties was he anticipated he’d have to use them in “self-defense” against the “henchmen” of the pro-communist concert promoter in case they manhandled him after the attack.

He said the perfume and fish sauce dispenser flew out of his hand when he was tackled by security — and he never saw it again.

The bombshell stunned the courtroom, including the prosecutor and jurors, some of whom sat up straighter in their seats.

Tong is charged with one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest and four felonies, including assault and second-degree burglary, and faces a maximum sentence of about four years. The former South Vietnamese air force pilot is best known locally for enduring a monthlong hunger strike in 2008 to get a strip of Vietnamese shops on Story Road named “Little Saigon,” an homage to the former capital of his homeland.

Prosecutor Deborah Hernandez tried to recover by suggesting he was lying about using fish spray.

“You chose today, almost two years after this incident, to tell people you are a fraud?” Hernandez asked incredulously, adding that Tong had never indicated to police or the media in several interviews that he used some other substance than pepper spray.

But when that tactic was less than successful, Hernandez switched gears and said even if he used the less dangerous Vietnamese condiment mixed with perfume, he still committed a violent act. The spray made some concertgoers and a security official cough and irritated their throats. The attack also reddened the singer’s face, eyes and chest. However, he was able to resume the concert within about 45 minutes.

“Weren’t you concerned that perfume has alcohol in it?” Hernandez asked.

In stilted English, Tong brushed off the effect as “inconvenient,” meaning minimal.

Tong said he lied about the pepper spray to “scare” the singer, whom he views as a representative of the repressive Vietnamese government. The tactic worked, Tong said. The singer didn’t perform later that summer as planned after a Las Vegas venue demanded $100,000 for extra security.

Tong explained why he has made it his life’s work to fight communism — including the convention center incident, which was his eighth “mission.” Among other reasons, he had been captured by the communist fighters during the war and tortured, including being strung up by his feet with his hands tied behind his back and beaten by six guards, he said. His escape from the prisoner-of-war camp was documented in The Wall Street Journal and Reader’s Digest, and President Ronald Reagan commended him, he testified.

Tong admitted that he initially planned to use pepper spray but didn’t once he read the warning label on the device.

To cast doubt on Tong’s account and portray him as violent, Hernandez noted he’d hijacked a plane in 1992 in Vietnam with 180 passengers aboard. Tong said he forced his way into the cockpit by saying he had to drop 50,000 anti-communist leaflets on Ho Chi Minh City and parachute out of the plane, or a bomb strapped to his body would go off.

“You told the stewardess you had a time bomb?” Hernandez said, apparently hearing the details for the first time. But Tong testified it was a prank, just like the fish sauce caper. The bomb was actually a set of binoculars, taped to his leg.

Hernandez’s line of questioning allowed defense attorney Daniel Portman to try to impress the jury by noting that Tong was sentenced to 20 years in a Vietnamese prison, but served only six because the U.S. government considered the hijacking an act of political protest and got him released.

“My act is the stuff of legend,” Tong said proudly.

But Hernandez suggested Tong had gone too far this time. “You didn’t drop any leaflets at the convention center in 2010,” she said, “did you?”

Tracey Kaplan is a reporter for the Bay Area News Group based at The Mercury News. A former courts reporter, she is now reporting primarily on consumer issues, and welcomes any tips/suggestions, especially on how to make ends meet in the Bay Area. Watch for a series this summer on her personal solution to the housing crisis -- spending her nest egg on turning a cargo van into what will eventually be her full-time home. For more info, see @itsavanlife on Instagram and our Facebook group, Full House: Inside the Bay Area housing shortage.